Why Life Science Firms Need Business Insurance

Businesses in the life science field face specific risks unique to your industry. Whether you’re working with delicate and potentially hazardous cell cultures or operating genome analyzers or thermal cyclers, you use a lot of delicate and expensive equipment and often irreplaceable biologic media that could easily be damaged or cause harm to others. You’re also responsible for keeping yourself and your employees safe while working with biological materials. You must manage these specialized risks as well as the more common ones small business’s everywhere deal with like property damage to your workplace or loss of critical files and records. Learn about the insurance coverages life science businesses like yours typically need, and most often purchase, from The Hartford.

Business Owner’s Policy

Most life science businesses need a Business Owner’s Policy (BOP). Why? Because it helps protect your small life science business in much the same way a homeowner’s insurance policy helps protect one’s home and personal possessions.

By combining three basic insurance coverages that are important to virtually every small business, including those engaged in the life science industry, a Business Owner’s Policy (BOP) could help save your firm money on small business insurance rates while protecting the company that means so much to you.

General Liability – helps protect your life science business from certain lawsuits alleging injuries or property damage that occurred as the result of your business operations, like if a customer is injured at your lab or facility, or an employee causes damage to a customer’s property while collecting samples or swabbing surfaces for germ cultures. It even helps cover certain claims of slander and libel. Business Liability does not cover liabilities directly arising out of the life science professional services you may provide.

Commercial Property – helps protect the place where you do business and the tools you use to conduct business, like lab instruments, autoclaves, shelving, furniture, or other tools and equipment – whether you own or lease them.

Business Income – helps cover the loss of income when you can’t run your life science business because of covered property damage.

Your life science business depends on computers to communicate with customers and vendors, store important scientific data, manage projects, conduct research, maintain employee and customer information, and so much more.

Computers and Media Coverage helps pay to research and replace lost data and the resulting loss of business income, if your computers are damaged or a virus corrupts your records.

Life science businesses often store sensitive employee and client information that could be deemed personally identifiable information such as customer credit/debit card numbers and Social Security numbers.

Data Breach Coverage helps pay the costs of notifying impacted individuals, managing public relations, good faith advertising, and more if personal information is lost or stolen from your life science business.

Have you ever borrowed a vehicle for business, say to attend a scientific conference, visit a research facility, meet with a client to discuss a project, pick up lab supplies or more? Unlike most personal auto insurance policies, Hired & Non-Owned Auto Coverage covers you when a borrowed, leased or rented vehicle, used for business purposes, is involved in an accident.

For businesses without owned or long-term leased vehicles that would need to be covered on a Business Auto policy.

(BOP) protection at an affordable price is easy thanks to The Hartford’s Stretch® endorsements that bundle valuable key insurance coverages. For life science businesses like yours, we offer Super Stretch for Life Science:

Super Stretch for Life Science provides valuable extensions to property coverage for life science businesses including:

$25,000 for Biological Research Materials that are not typically covered as business property by most business property policies.

Business Income Extension for Milestones, which helps cover the loss of a grant or other investment due to a covered property loss that results in a failure for firm to meet a Milestone.

Contact an agent or a representative from The Hartford about these cost-effective solutions that help take the guesswork out of selecting the right small business insurance coverage for your life science business.

Additional Solutions

If you have employees, use a car for work, or work from home, your life science business may also benefit from:

Workers’ Compensation insurance is required by most states and provides benefits to your life science business’s employees for work-related injuries or illnesses including medical care, wages from lost work time, and more. In the event that a worker’s family decides to sue you, our workers' compensation coverage can help you with related legal fees. Life science companies are among the many businesses that have been turning to The Hartford for workers’ compensation coverage for more than a century.

Do you ever use your car for work related purposes? Perhaps you transport lab equipment or research data to and from your facility or office, drive to industry symposiums, pick up offices supplies, or more.

A Business Auto Policy provides coverage generally not included in a personal auto insurance policy. It can help cover you or an employee of your life science company when an owned vehicle, used for business purposes, is involved in an accident.

Connect With Us

The coverages and services described herein are summaries only. All policies should be read carefully to determine exclusions, limitations and other terms and conditions. In the event of a conflict, the terms and conditions of the policy will govern. All coverages and services may not be available for all businesses or in all states. Please contact your agent or broker for details.